About Jay Heikes

With an almost cathartic practice, Jay Heikes seeks to purge himself of past fixations in search of a freer artistic expression. His drawings, sculptures, videos, and installations appropriate and alter text and imagery from pop culture, crafting a personal narrative about the struggle for individuality. His 2009 work Generational Anxiety, a serpentine bronze and iron sculpture, embodies Heikes' fear of cyclical reptition. In the video Kill Yr Idols part III (2011), Heikes references musicians and artists whom he idolizes, the work’s slow reveal a meditation on the important role time plays in shedding such a deep impression. Among Heikes’ diverse influences are Alighiero e Boetti, as well as the artists of the Arte Povera movement like Michelangelo Pistoletto and Pier Paolo Calzolari.